On Monday, October 5, the Ibrahim Index on African Governance (IIAG) released its report for 2015 in London. The IIAG is increasingly recognized as an influential barometer of African governance trends. Two years ago I was privileged to have dinner with Mo Ibrahim at a rather posh restaurant in Brussels. I found him to be a down-to-earth, cosmopolitan and cultured gentleman. A high-minded personality full of self-deprecating humour; he is an engaging conversationalist – deeply passionate about Africa and its future.
The chief visioner of the IIAG, Mohammed “Mo” Ibrahim, is a Sudanese telecoms engineer and entrepreneur. Graduating with a degree in electronics engineering from the University of Alexandria in Egypt, he did a doctorate in mobile telecommunications at the University of Birmingham in England. He worked with several telecoms companies before establishing Celtel which became a dominant force at the beginning of the mobile telephony revolution in Africa. He sold the firm for the princely sum of US$3.4 billion in 2005.
Growing up as a young man in Khartoum, he witnessed the devastation of misrule and the consequent backwardness, poverty and strife it engenders. He promised himself that he would do whatever he could to improve governance and leadership throughout the beloved continent. To this end, he created the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to promote governance in Africa, together with the Governance Index to monitor and report annually on trends and progress.
The IIAG draws on a huge body of data from the World Bank, the UN, the African Development Bank and various international development agencies. The IIAG has come up with 94 indicators, including such areas as security, the rule of law, political freedom, accountability, fair and credible elections, human development, graft, state of infrastructure, human development, welfare, and human capital (health and education). All of these have been condensed into four principal areas, namely: (i) Safety and the Rule of Law; (ii) Participation and Human Rights; (iii) Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and (iv) Human Development. A numerical score that measures these indices goes from 0 to 100.
According to the 2015 report, of 54 countries, the top 10 performers in order of progression in the quality of governance are Mauritius, Cape Verde, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Seychelles, Ghana, Tunisia, Senegal and Lesotho. The bottom five are Eritrea, Sudan, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Somalia. Some 21 out of 54 countries experienced major deterioration in their governance performance. Six countries recorded a substantial improvement (Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Zimbabwe).
The continent improved overall on Human Development (+1.2) and in the area of Participation and Human Rights (+0.7). I would imagine that the quest to reach the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for December 2015 and the fear of getting entangled with the International Criminal Court (ICC) may have concentrated the minds of many African leaders. The continent, unfortunately, registered deterioration in the other two domains of Sustainable Economic Opportunity (-0.7) and the Rule of Law (-0.3).
In terms of regional performance, Southern Africa came out tops, with an average score of 58.9, followed by our own ECOWAS region with a score of 52.9. The worst performing region is Central Africa, with a score of 40.9. Central Africa has some of the most troubled countries in the world, notably Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Chad, which belongs to that region, is yet to be out of the woods in terms of its own economic, political and human development challenges.
Nigeria’s performance in the IIAG has been of special interest to this writer. Ours is one of the countries among the negative performers. We came number 39 with a performance of 44.9, amounting to a deterioration of -2.5. First in class, Mauritius, came out with a score of 79.9 against Nigeria’s weak 44.9. We were outperformed by Cameroon at number 37 and strife-torn Burundi at number 38. Cameroon has had one dictator for nearly 40 years; a country where nothing happens.
The report concludes: “While Africans overall are certainly healthier and live in more democratic societies than they did 15 years ago, the 2015 IIAG shows that recent progress in other key areas on the continent has either stalled or reversed, and that some key countries are faltering.”
All in all, it just means we are still a long shot from where we ought to be. Nigeria, which recently assumed the enviable position of numero uno on the continent as far as GDP goes, trails abysmally behind in the quality of its governance and leadership. More work needs to be done in restoring hope to our people; in engendering a growth trajectory that generates jobs for the youths and expands the production possibility frontiers of our collective welfare. Nothing will be possible without peace. The evil forces generated by the insurgency in the north east and the silent genocide by Fulani marauders in the ancestral savannah of the Middle Belt have taken us backwards by a decade.
Lest we forget, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation also announced in March this year the winner of its 2014 Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. It comprises a lump sum of US$5 million and a guaranteed life-time annual US$200,000 for any African leader who demonstrates exceptional integrity and leadership in the business of statecraft. Such a leader must have been duly democratically elected and would have served only his constitutional term in office. He is also required to be in retirement for at least three years.
The recent winner, Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia, has been wholly deserving of the prize, having served his country with distinction. For several years no one had been found worthy of the prize. Past winners have been the legendary Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Festus Mogae of Botswana and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde. That our continent cannot have enough leaders worthy of this prize which dwarfs anything coming from Alfred Nobel proves that God’s work in Africa is far from ended.
Obadiah Mailafia
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
